What do you live for?
What are you doing?
How are your relationships?
Where does your water come from?

All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for….

(adapted from The 11th Hour by an unnamed Elder of the Hopi Nation)

And this is the retreat You’ve been waiting for!

Following our highly successful Ecovillage Design Course last year, our one drop team have been going through some deep soul-searching and inner transformation. Now we are re-emerging with a new and fresh sense of direction in the type of courses and retreats we wish to offer.

The Calling is the result of months of dreaming together around ways to serve and support the heartfelt calling that is stirring in human society today…

It is the call for meaning; for purpose; for living in line with our values and our dreams; and, ultimately, for realising our full human potential. For us this calling is rooted in healing our connection with Gaia; it is about living life to the fullest- which really means awakening to the NOW; it is about opening up to and taking responsibility for CHANGE.

More a retreat than a course, our aim is to journey together with our participants into a sacred experiential exploration of living and being the change we want to see in the world.

For registration & more information please contact us @ onedropsolutions@gmail.com

Special Addendum

We would like to inform the participants of an important additional- though entirely optional- experience that will be happening after the official closing of the course, on the evening of July 7th. At this time we are organising a sacred medicine ceremony of Ayahuasca.

We see this event as a continuation of the work initiated during the course and we warmly encourage the participants to consider engaging into this sacred experience- if you feel called ;-).

The medicine will be brought and introduced to us by a young and talented Peruvian shaman, Claudio Wauque, who is highly experienced in guiding groups through this work.

There will be an additional cost of R$ 165 for this experience to cover the expenses of Claudio and the extra day of food & accommodation.

We are happy to answer any questions you may have around this topic too.

For registration & more information please contact us @ onedropsolutions@gmail.com

The first EDE in the state of Bahia took place between April and June, in the ‘Cocoa coast’, near the sea-side town of Itacaré, at a holistic center, Pedra do Sabiá, located in the midst of beautiful nature.

One unique feature of our program was the cultural richness and great diversity of the participants, five of whom were native, afro-descendants, two connected to a nearby “kilombola” (slave descendants community), as well as Brazilians from states as far as the Amazon state of Pará, two Argentinians and representatives from North America and Europe.

Some of the participants were linked to our partner Mecenas da Vida, a carbon-neutralization NGO who supports local farmers with a strong vision for the ecological and social transformation of the region, and whom retributed the bursaries by supplying locally grown organic food for our program.

The first module, which centered around world-view and ecology, had a strong focus on ecovillage design. One of the most exciting features –and among the core reasons for choosing our program location- was that participants had the chance to practically work on the design of two real emerging intentional communities over the course of a week: the place that was hosting us, and ‘Aldeia’, just a boat ride across the river. Both of these represented a clean slate on which to explore their newly acquired skills in direct relation with the existing communities.

Both groups had the chance to present their designs to the respective stakeholders, get direct feed-back and have the extra buzz of knowing that their designs may be used in the development of these ecovillages.

This module also had a strong permaculture focus, and integrated a PDC as part of the curriculum.

One of the bonuses of the first edition of the EDE South of Bahia, was the privileged location of the program, as we were blessedly located in the middle of an environmentally preserved area, surrounded by lush Atlantic rainforest. Participants had the chance to soak in the lushness during walks to the nearby waterfall and lake, ceremonies held at the ancient jack-fruit trees and boat-rides across the river to do practicals at the ‘Aldeia’ community.

The second module, Co-Creating a New Culture, centered around the socio-economic dimensions, and had a strong focus on conscious communication and inner growth/observation. This meant we took opportunities to explore some practical tools to transform conflicts whilst diving deeper, using issues that were ‘alive’ and reflected the inter-personal dynamics of the group. We had particularly powerful sharings and healings during forum, men and women’s circles/fishbowl, closing with o’ oponopono, and a beautiful feed-back session. These, together with the dance, creativity and round the fire ceremonial moments, weaved a special connection of intimacy and sacredness between us.

One of the course’s special highlights included an evening spent at the nearby community and celebratory gathering ‘Sarau’, where locally produced crafts merged with talent shows, and we were able to practically explore issues relating to bio-regionalism and solidarity economy.

Another highlight was our end-of-course especially co-created St. John party, a traditional Brazilian festivity, were participants formed teams to work on the food, decoration, and evening program, including a choreographed dance and teather act. It was a blast! And we were taken aback by the level of commitment, creativity and collegiality of our teams in action.

Lessons learned for future EDES? One is we need be more disciplined about not opening up to participants the stuff we really wanted to cover but felt we had to leave out or do at a later moment…which apparently left them feeling like they were missing out on yet more juicy bits! Another is to perhaps offer more free spaces to allow time to reflect and assimilate the content.

Special guests of our program included indigenous representatives from the Tupinambá nation -who held our opening land blessing – and a special dance show from a local NGO who help afro-brazilian youth find their identity through art and culture, the Casa do Boneco, and who was represented throughout the program by a young woman.

In the spirit of continuing to integrate our future courses into emerging communities, recognizing this as a mutual symbiotic relationship, the next EDE, planned for January and March of 2013, will be partly based at the Kilombo d’Oiti, where this local NGO, Casa do Boneco, is working to develop their own afro-brazilian rooted community.

All across the world millions of people are co-creating a new culture of peace, harmony, re-building community and deep care for our planetary home.

This course, called Co-creating a New Culture, is designed for people who are seeking to transform their lives and consciously engage in the global movement for social change.

By exploring the tools and pathways of how we can actively take responsibility for realising and living our deepest values, we can indeed become the change we want to see in the world.

Join us as we explore the cutting edge of social change and economic reform in a space of love, cultural diversity and transparency!

Here’s an outline of the themes we’ll be sharing:

Social –

How can we relate to each other more transparently and re-learn to live together in harmony?

Conscious Communication & Conflict Transformation

Decision-Making

Group Facilitation & Collective Intelligence

Dragon Dreaming & Project Design

Children & Conscious Parenting

Nutrition and Healing

Social/Community Outreach

Celebrating Life: Art & Creativity

Social structures in intentional community

Economic –

How can we transform our relationship with money and material wealth

and create more abundance in our lives?

Money as energy

Building local economies

Sustainable Ecovillages & Cottage crafting

Entrepreneurship, Feasibility Studies & Business Plans

Leadership & Co-empowerment

This course is offered as the second module of the Gaia Education certified Ecovillage Design Education, but is also course that can be taken (and greatly benefitted from!) without doing or having done the first module.